This is a Hong Kong action flick starring Aaron Kwok as rookie cop Wang Chia-Hui, who got himself in hot water loosing a suspect in an armored car robbery. Chia-Hui then joins forces with cops Liu (Ching Wan Lau) and Ma (Ka-Yan Leung) to go after gang leader Han (Elvis Tsui).

The movie is not bad - there's some nice action sequences and some suspense involving villain Han's girlfriend, Min (Fennie Yuen), whose caught between justice and crime. Aaron Kwok makes an OK male lead, while the other actors in the film had better acting. The plot was fast-paced enough to make the flick at least mildly entertaining.

Grade B-

SPOILERS!!!! The information available at the IMDB is invaluable when deciding what movies will become part of my collection. So when considering the purchase of "The Shootout" I checked the site to see what others had to say. Surprisingly, for a movie almost ten years old, it had not yet received the minimum number of comments. This should have told me something. Despite this, I took a chance and purchased the DVD version, which is subtitled and not dubbed.

In the movie's opening sequence, an armored car is robbed a gang of thieves on motorcycles. Guards are killed, and the bandits make off with a large amount of cash. Unfortunately, this is one of only two decent action sequences in this film. The second sequence is the film's finale. In between is 80 minutes that fails to be entertaining or amusing. A story that quickly bogs down as a group of four incompetent cops tries to capture the thieves.

The lead actor, Aaron Kwok, plays a bumbling police officer. Instead of focusing on the case, his attention is devoted to pursuing a woman he sees in a market. Lucky for him, she turns out to be involved with the leader of the band of thieves.

Jackie Chan is credited as the Producer, and there are continuous attempts to inject a comedic flavor. It just doesn't work. If you do laugh, it probably will not be at something that the filmmakers intended you to laugh at, like the excessive use of sparks whenever there are shots fired.

The movie's finale is the best action sequence in the film, but it's nothing outstanding, and the close quarters fighting is just OK. Why this movie was titled the "The Shootout" is a mystery. There is no big shootout scene, and when the major baddie dies, it isn't in a gunfight.

Aside from the action scenes at the beginning and end, there is very little to recommend in this film. Kwok's performance is annoying, and without any charm. The rest of the cast isn't much better. Adding the IQ's of the rest of the detective team, you might not get a three digit number.

I wish that reviews had been posted before I got this movie. Avoid my mistake. "The Shootout" is off target, and fires major blanks. (Maybe that's where all the sparks came from)

K-Rating: 3/10.

Why this film is called "The Shootout" eludes me. There is a final shoot out but its so unremarkable that calling a film "The Shootout" on the basis of it is just asking for trouble (and is probably the reason this film has fallen through the cracks and seems to be out of circulation via home video) The plot of the film concerns a heist of an armored car. It goes kind of wrong and one of the robbers is caught. Only he's shot in police custody and the cop who was with him is in trouble. He's sent out for food where he meets a beautiful girl whom he them pursues (leaving the robbery as a secondary plot line). Thankfully(no not really) the girl is actually the girl friend of the robbery's mastermind and wouldn't you know it she's not that bad a girl after all.It all ends in the title event.

Those expecting an action packed film will be disappointed. Outside of the excellent opening robbery and a merely adequate finale this is a dull film. I completely understand why there were a couple of copies in the dump bin in Chinatown, basically one can't watch this and not be disappointed. Its okay I suppose, I mean I stayed to the end, but at the same time I was waiting for an actual shoot out...

Take a pass.